Data Sources

Data Sources

For reporting, Data Source is a must. You need to select your data source at the time of creating your report.

Multiple data sources can have the same primary business object. Example: Both the All Workers and All Active and Terminated Workers data sources have Worker as the primary business object.

Some data sources return all instances of the primary business object, such as All Workers. Some data sources also include:

• Built-in filters that limit the number of business object instances. Example: All Active Employees.
• Prompts that you can use when running the report. Example: Employees by Organization.

Workday secures data sources and data source filters by security domains. Different domains might secure a data source and its data source filters. Example: Many domains secure the Workers for HCM Reporting data source, but only the Worker Data: Headcount Reports and Worker Data: Turnover Summary domains secure the Workers by Role filter on the data source.

From the related actions menu of a data source, you can select Custom Report > Create to create a custom report using the data source.

Access the Report Data Sources, in this report you can see the Primary Business Object, permitted Security Groups, Data Source type, Prompts and most importantly Description of the data source. This provides you with the detailed information of what that particular data source is all about.

Workday Business Objects

Workday Business Objects

Workday architecture is Object based. Workday stores the data in business objects (BO).
A business object is like a spreadsheet, where each row is an instance of the object. Each column represents an attribute, or field, of the object.

Example:  Workers John Anderson and Cathy Robins are each an instance of the Worker business object. The Worker business object contains fields such as Job Title, Age, Gender, and Dependents.

Below Snapshot shows how Business Objects are automatically connected. In the View 1, the Worker Business Object is linked to Benefits, Salary, Manager and Position. Which means the Worker is sitting in a Position, reporting to a Manager, getting some Salary and opted for Benefits.  In the View 2, Position is linked to Location and in turn Location is linked to Currency.  Here all of them are BO's.

Business Objects - Sample

Workday links related business objects together through single instance or multi-instance fields. Related Business Objects (PBO) enable you to access fields in a report that don’t belong to the Primary Business Object. (RBO)

Example: The Worker business object has a multi-instance field called Dependents. Dependents has a related business object of Dependent. In a report with a primary business object of Worker, you can use the Dependents field to access the fields belonging to the Dependent business object.

A report by name Business Object Details can be used to view:

• Custom and standard reports that use the business object.
• Data sources using the business object as the primary business object.
• Fields associated with the business object.
• Related business objects.

If you want to relate the workday terms with Database Management Systems like Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, see below:

Delegation in Workday

Delegation is the assignment of any responsibility or authority to another person (normally from a manager to a subordinate) to carry out specific activities. Here in Workday, we can say that Tasks and Reports and inbox items can be delegated to other peers or managers to be completed on their behalf.

This Delegation is majorly used when a manager is on Leave and certain task needs to be completed, the Manager can delegate his tasks to someone else who can complete in his absence. And this is used in Production Tenants. For Non-production Tenants also you may use, but you have a better way doing this in the form of  Start Proxy - Stop Proxy

How to setup Delegations in Workday?
Go to the task Manage Delegation Settings to setup. Here you can create or stop delegations.

This helps in viewing and managing worker's delegation settings. This Enables you to see what delegations a worker currently has active, what delegations a worker has had in the past (History) and which business processes are allowed for delegation.

Do Remember the Begin Date should NOT be a past date. It can be current or future date.

Once you click on Request Delegation Change, it will allow you to set up the delegation with the allowed Business processes.

Additionally, you can see the report My Delegations. This helps to View Current Delegations with a button to request delegation changes, Current Task Delegations, Delegation History, Delegated Tasks, and Business Processes allowed for Delegation.









From Inbox, you can view your delegations.

Below are the list of tasks and reports that can be used for Delegation.

Delegate Task - Individual Worker and Business Process Level.

View All Delegated Tasks - All delegated tasks BP's for you.

Business Process Tasks not Delegated - This report returns the list of business process steps that were not able to delegated for the Business Process Step Initiated in Date Range. Items are not Delegated because either both the Delegate and Alternate Delegate were excluded by Routing Restrictions or because the step was configured for an eSignature Integration Type.

Delegation History - View business process transactions delegated by a specified worker, with dates, status, and delegate. Enables you to see what the specified worker has delegated to whom. Required prompt: Worker Optional prompt: none

Business Processes for Delegation - View which business processes you can delegate. Enables you to view which business processes have been enabled or disabled via security for delegation. Required prompt: none Optional Prompts: Show Business Processes

Current Delegations -View all delegations for the specified organizations. Details include the delegating worker, delegation duration, delegate, affected business processes, and delegation configuration.

View My Delegation Assignments -View all your delegation assignments, the delegating worker, dates, business processes, and delegation rules. Enables you to keep track of your delegation assignments. Required prompt: none Optional prompt: none

Additional Reads:
Proxy Access
Reassign Task

Workday Basics - Field Types

Field Types

There are different Fields in Workday. Below are the list of field types. 

Workday supports field types such as:

• Boolean
• Numeric
• Text
• Single instance
• Multi-instance

Workday secures fields by security domains. Users must have access to the security domain to:

• Use the field in a report definition.
• View data in that field when running the report.

Workday makes understanding report fields easier by providing icons for each field type, including icons for indexed fields.

All the above said fields are self explanatory. Some of the fields which are new:

Self-referencing field type returns an instance of the Business Object.

Example: If the data source returns Workers and you set up a field for the primary business object, the self-referencing field returns a Worker.

Single instance field types represent the one-to-one relationship the primary business object has with the related business object. A single instance field contains 1 value representing the instance in the related business object that links to the primary business object.

Multi-instance field types represent the one-to-many relationship the Primary Business Object has with the Related Business Object. A multi-instance field can contain multiple values with each value representing an instance in the related business object that links to the primary business object.

There is one report by name Report Fields which enables you to view the detailing of the field which are of calculated and Workday-delivered report fields and types. And you can view Business Object Name, Field description too.